And here we are, once again. This is a scenario that has played over and over again throughout history. We can see how an unseen confluence of ideas and behaviors lead to a crisis that could have been prevented if it were possible to learn from the mistakes of history and human tendencies. But history, philosophy, and psychology is only for the few, and it is only helpful for those who truly see its implications as life lessons. So we must suffer once again.
Trump is most likely a sociopath, but what does this mean to people who are too blind, lazy, or self-centered to think that this is a bad thing? Trump is the devil, the antiChrist, but not in any religious sense. He is the metaphorical darkness set upon the land —the Pharaoh of the Exodus story, Hitler, Mussolini, King Midas, Stalin, Putin, Dr No of the Bond series, and all the rest who stood at the crossroads of history and went the wrong way. But the worst part about Trump is that too few recognize him for what he is.
If we get out of this unscathed it will be something of a miracle. Justice is only justice if the majority agrees that it is. Trump, like all the rest of his kind over the millennia, has proven that laws, justice, organization, and mutual respect have no intrinsic reality, but to rely upon them is to take them for granted. No system is airtight and infallible.
You wrote: "According to the Enlightenment’s metanarrative, society is supposed to progress along with science and technology. That is, free societies are supposed to be able to solve their political and cultural problems with a free exchange of ideas, rather than spiralling into infantile, demagogic exchanges that end with a catastrophic populist reckoning."
Society cannot progress; it has never progressed and yet we pretend that it has because we conflate technological advances with psychological advancement. But the psychology of humankind has barely progressed since the first humans gathered in clans. Why? Because our brains and minds are conditioned generation after generation to be in conflict and to not see that we are all one unit of interrelated beings moving through space and time together. Instead we see ourselves as individuals who need to be greedy, hurtful, angry, jealous, and self-centered to be kept secure in a scary, confusing world. Where has this every gotten us? History has already shown us yet we go on in a loop, appearing as though we have made progress at times and then regressing into darkness at other times..
Trump is a metaphor, a symbol of the dark side, the potential to be all the things we know are bad, harmful, hateful, spiteful, unintelligent, unaware, sloppy, lecherous, and so on. He is a mirror to us, showing us what would happen if we were to cave to our basic instincts and allow ourselves to surrender our humanity compassion, and good sense. He is a warning, but a warning that falls on those who are too self-involved to pay attention.
We are destined to suffer as the result of a catalyst, and this catalyst is Donald Trump.
